Say aah…
by Omnicat
Summary: Sasame cooks. Who would've guessed. / Sasame x Takako


**Title:** "Say ahh..."

**Author:** Omnicat

**Unofficially Adapted From:** Junichi Sato's _Prétear_

**Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge:** All of the above.

**Warnings:** None.

**Characters & Pairings:** Sasame x Takako

**Summary:** Sasame cooks. Who would've guessed. / Sasame x Takako

**Author's Note:** Takes place during the time Takako was the Prétear.

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

"**Say ahh..."**

"What's your favorite food?" he asked as soon as they had gone through the door.

That was the last question she'd expected. "What?" Sasame returned her odd look with one of his usual calm, patient, kind, and-a-bit-of-everything-else ones and shrugged his coat off before helping her take off hers. Takako blinked rapidly and backed away a little from the proximity-impaired Knight of Sound. "My favorite food?"

Sasame nodded.

"Why would you want to know?"

He cocked his head to the side. "So I can cook it for you, of course. Why, is it something embarrassing?"

"Uhm..." Now that he'd said it, she could think of several weird things to do with her favorite dish. "I didn't think so... it's just... noodles."

"Then noodles it is." he said with a wide smile, and set off to the kitchen, leaving Takako confused and speechless. His voice drifted back to the small living room area Takako had wandered into. "Is there anything special you'd like me to do with the noodles?"

"N - no," the young women stammered. She didn't understand why Sasame, cool, quiet, distant Sasame, was acting like this. Yes, they'd had a though day of training, but she was perfectly capable of going home, to have dinner with her mother. She wasn't expected there, as she'd said she would be eating at a friend's house, but she couldn't see that being the reason. She decided to just ask. Her mother had taught her that honesty was best, after all.

Sasame was glad she couldn't see his face ignite at her question. "Oh, just because." He feigned nonchalance and used a whiff of magic to add a smile to his voice that he couldn't force his mouth to form. "You're my Prétear. I'm your Knight. I have to take good care of you."

Oh, how he wished Hayate would say that to her once in a while. He bit his lip as he took a packet of noodles from the cupboard, but shook the thought off. It was none of his business, not his place. Takako was already falling for the Knight of Wind, and he shouldn't interfere with her happiness. If stolen moments like this evening, secret even from Takako, were all he would be granted, then so be it.

"Ah." She seemed uncomfortable. "I didn't know you could cook."

Sasame took out a pan and filled it with water. "Oh, yes, quite well. Goh is better, but that is to be expected. He _likes_ making the seven of us dinner."

"You don't even like cooking?" Takako blurted out, instantly regretting it.

Sasame smiled sadly and poured the noodles into the pan. "Only for you, Takako."

An uncomfortable silence fell. Sasame could hear her shuffle her feet and look around his living room. The combined sonic images of two of the most familiar things in his life made a great match, he thought wistfully. The emerald of her eyes was the same 'shade' of vibration as the plant sitting in his windowsill.

"You're free to look around." Sasame made her jump with her hand halfway to a book on one of the shelves lining the apartment's inner wall. "This will take a couple of minutes."

Takako gingerly accepted his offer. The apartment was nice, especially considering the fact that the occupant was a seventeen year old single male without much of a job. And compared to Hayate's (two stories down in the same building) it was _so_ clean and tidy. She suspected she'd found out the secret identity of the Leafe Knights' mother hen.

Takako laughed softly when she noted, with honestly only a small peak into his bedroom, that his open wardrobe was as tidy as the rest. Her father had always driven her mother mad with his sloppiness regarding his clothes...

"My, Sasame, it would seem you are the perfect man," she said conversationally, trusting that Sasame could hear her just fine. "You cook, you clean, you're a gentleman and a knight in every aspect, a real charmer and good with words... How you're still single is a mystery to me."

She returned to the living area to find him setting the table, his face stained with a blush.

"Be careful, or you'll spark my ego. I already feel like showing off." Music started playing out of nowhere. Her expression of wonder at the beautiful, complex melody made him smile proudly. "Out of my bare head. I can do a lot of music styles, any preference?"

"T - this one is nice."

He pulled out her chair for her and bowed with a flourish, making Takako giggle. Only when she looked around the table twice did she notice something was wrong.

"Sasame, how can we eat without plates or bowls?"

He apparently failed to see the problem. "This is how we often eat in Leafenia; right from the pot. We can share, can't we?"

Takako sweatdropped. So much for the mother hen theory; he was just as much a young bachelor as the other knights.

The table was indeed narrow enough to allow them to eat from the same pan without having to perform acrobatics. That it had been entirely his intention to end up bent over the same portion of noodles was something Sasame kept to himself. Takako felt a little awkward at first, but Sasame was used to that (he seemed to have that effect on almost everyone), and Takako was used to Sasame, so they were soon slurping away and chatting animatedly. When the pan was almost empty they happened to reach for the last clump of noodle strands simultaneously. Takako got hold of one end with her chopsticks while Sasame got the other end.

They looked up at each other. For a while they just stared, Sasame drinking in the sight of her face and the sound of her breathing, and Takako wondering whether he would claim the noodles or not. When he didn't make his move, Takako took her end into her mouth. Then, without warning, he did the same, and before Takako knew it their lips met in a chaste, brief, noodly half-kiss.

He bit down and withdrew, smacking his lips. Only then did she notice the impish gleam in his eyes. He smirked, but for one fleeting moment, she thought she saw something in his eyes.

"Sonic Arrows take a lot from a man."

Especially when they pierced his heart.

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

**PSAN: **This is a repost, so if it looks familiar, yes, you've probably read this before in a different context.


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